called last month<\/a> for the establishment of a new category of EU citizenship described the criticism as an ongoing \u201ccacophony\u201d.<\/p>\n\u201cForemost [it is] a question of political goodwill and then only it will become a legal question,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI launched this idea [of an associate EU citizenship] and I hope it will garner increasing support – not only with politicians but also with groups within civil society – who can also exert political pressure around this issue \u2026 Then we should be able to find the means to implement it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Goerens said his critics were \u201cshort sighted\u201d, warning that it was important not to view the proposal simply through a legal prism.<\/p>\n
He cited a Chinese proverb to illustrate his point: \u201cWhen the wise man points at the Moon, the idiot looks at the finger.\u201d<\/p>\n
An associate citizenship would allow citizens of former EU member states to opt in and retain for a fee their EU citizenship along with its associated benefits, such as freedom of movement and the right to reside and work across the EU, as well as a vote in European Parliament elections.<\/p>\n
Mr Goerens said that he supported a \u201csoft Brexit\u201d, adding that a \u201chard Brexit\u201d without access to the single market would be \u201ccatastrophic\u201d for the UK.\u00a0 But, regardless of the final outcome, Europe should maintain a \u201cvery close relationship\u201d with the UK after it leaves the bloc, which should also mean \u201cfreedom of movement for its citizens across the EU\u201d.<\/p>\n
The European Parliament\u2019s chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt (pictured above, right) said during a meeting of the European Parliament\u2019s Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) in Brussels last Thursday that the proposal for associate EU citizenship \u201cwill be on the table [in] the upcoming Brexit negotiations\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ability to keep European citizenship for those who risk losing it \u2026 will be discussed at the moment of the Parliament\u2019s resolution right after the triggering of Article 50 in March,\u201d Mr Verhofstadt, leader of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), told the committee.<\/p>\n
Mr Goerens, also a member of the ALDE and AFCO, agreed with Mr Verhofstadt\u2019s decision to include the associate EU citizenship proposal in the upcoming Brexit negotiations. The decision was taken last Wednesday after a vote in the House of Commons, in which most MPs agreed to support the UK Prime Minister Theresa May\u2019s plan to trigger Article 50 by the end of March 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prospect that Article 50 will be invoked has [now] become very real indeed,\u201d Mr Goerens said in an earlier statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe European Parliament will define its position on the Brexit agreement through a resolution during spring [March] 2017. This seems to be the best opportunity to give Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt the possibility to enforce the associate EU citizenship.\u201d<\/p>\n
By Katia Yezli<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European MP who proposed associate European Union citizenship for United Kingdom nationals after Brexit last night hit back at critics who said such a move was unlikely, saying anything was possible…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14,115],"tags":[50,44,33],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beyond-brexit","category-chief-exec-eu","category-featured-news","tag-european-union","tag-government","tag-migration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1657"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1691,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1657\/revisions\/1691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chief-exec.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}